Rand Paul Floats Controversial Idea for Ilhan Omar

Says he'll help buy a plane ticket for her to visit Somalia so she can better appreciate US
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 29, 2019 11:51 AM CDT
Rand Paul Floats Controversial Idea for Ilhan Omar
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., speaks July 22, 2019, in Glasgow, Ky.   (Bac Totrong/Daily News via AP)

Rand Paul has been staunchly on the side of President Trump during Trump's public feud with Rep. Ilhan Omar and others progressive members of "the Squad." Now, the Kentucky senator has ramped up his defense with a provocative statement about the Somalia-born Omar, reports the Louisville Courier-Journal. "I'm not saying we forcibly send her anywhere," Paul told Breitbart News. "I'm willing to contribute to buy her a ticket to go visit Somalia. I think she can look and maybe learn a little bit about the disaster that is Somalia." Paul told Breitbart that Omar is "ungrateful," given that she and her family received US assistance when they moved from Somalia to the US when Omar was a child.

Omar "might come back and appreciate America more" after visiting her native country, which has "no capitalism, has no God-given rights guaranteed in a constitution, and has about seven different tribes that have been fighting each other for the last 40 years," said Paul. He accused Omar of calling the US a "terrible country," echoing a previous assertion of his that she called the US a "rotten country." However, Snopes did some checking and finds no record of Omar saying that. She has frequently criticized policies of the Trump administration, but Snopes rates the claim that she has called the US itself "rotten" to be false. Similarly, President Trump has accused Omar of hating the US, though he has not provided evidence of her saying that, per the Washington Post. (More Rand Paul stories.)

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